The UNESCO Courier - Culture: the bedrock of peace

A new global awareness of the role that culture plays in the quest for peace is emerging today. This is the theme at the heart of the main dossier of the Courier's October-December 2017 issue. It includes an exclusive interview with Ahmad al Mahdi, a member of the extremist Islamist group Ansar Dine, sentenced to nine years' imprisonment by the International Criminal Court in 2016, for having deliberately destroyed the mausoleums of Timbuktu, in Mali.

In other sections, the Courier addresses the issues of the "crisis of the idea of humanity" underlying the "migrant crisis", and of a school hijacked by war. It also invites you to discover the fascinating history of the wreck of a thirteenth-century Chinese merchant ship, preserved today in its “Crystal Palace”, and the exciting adventure of the Energy Observer, the first 100% ecological laboratory boat.

Our guest, Ouided Bouchamaoui, member of the Tunisian Quartet, winner of the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize, focuses on the issue of national dialogue in a country that is still struggling to emerge from its crisis.